At the Intersection of Faith and Culture

The “Root Causes” of the Newtown Shooting

No sooner had the word of the Sandy Hook Elementary School slaughter in Newtown,Connecticut broke than the search for “root causes” was well under way. Not unexpectedly, topping the list was the “root cause” par excellence, the alleged lack of “gun control.”

Unsurprisingly, none of the following “root causes” made the cut.

For nearly forty years, abortion has been the law of our land. Forget for the moment whether the aborted is a “person,” “child,” or “fetus,” or whether or not it has a “right to life.” What no one can deny is that it is its mother’s posterity, her begotten. It is her child.

But in allowing mothers, of all people, to destroy their own children, can anyone doubt that we make minced meat of the idea that children, being the most vulnerable among us, are to be protected at all costs?

Maybe it is exactly because the abortion culture had taken its toll upon mass murderer Adam Lanza’s psyche that he had no regard for innocent children.

Capital punishment, or, more precisely, the infrequency with which it is implemented, may also explain Lanza’s murderous actions.

Far from undermining the sanctity of human life, there is no other institution that affirms it more resoundingly than that of the death penalty. Inasmuch as the latter expunges from the midst of the living those who would commit such unthinkable crimes as that of which Adam Lanza is guilty, capital punishment is the clearest expression of a people’s regard for the life and well being of its members.

However, the death penalty is rarely exercised with any measure of regularity where it remains on the books, and in places like Connecticut particularly, it is scarcely exercised at all. Since 1976, only one person had been executed in the state, and earlier this year,Connecticut repealed the ultimate punishment.

The sanctity of human life is thus eroded further. Lanza may have gotten the memo.

Manza’s race and gendercould have played a huge role in accounting for his rampage. Consider that Manza was a young white man, that is, a member of just that group, and only that group, that is derided and mistreated as a matter of policy.

From “affirmative action” to massive Third World immigration, from media depictions of white men as either ignoramuses or crazed “racists” to the incessant barrage of giddy proclamations of an ever diminishing white America, the assault on white men is comprehensive.

Is it impossible to believe that a young white man like Manza, who has been exposed to this systematic abuse his entire life, may not have been consumed with both self-hatred and rage? For that matter, may not this cultural animus toward whites have figured in Manza’s choice to leave a trail (judging from news photos) of mostly white bodies?

Then there is the matter of Manza’s ethnicity. “Manza” is an Italian surname, and Italians and Italian-Americans are routinely portrayed as Mafioso and other violent thugs in the popular media.

Maybe Manza incorporated this image into his own self-understanding. Maybe this is why he chose to go on a shooting spree.

Almost as unrelenting as their campaign against white men is that which the Politically Correct storm troopers have prosecuted against religion.

Traditional Christian theism has been mocked and ridiculed while atheism has been promoted as “cool” and “hip.” But, as hardened atheists from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jean Paul Sartre have noted, if there is no God then there is no objective morality: man is free—condemned to be free, Sartre insisted—to create his own values. In fact, he has no option but to create his values, for there are no values otherwise.

Is it inconceivable to think that this message just may have crept into Lanza’s consciousness over the span of his life?

Now for the punch line: I don’t for a moment believe that any of the foregoing “root causes” are in the least relevant to Adam Lanza’s decision to gun down 20 little kids and six adults. Yet they have at least as much as to do with it as does the lack of “gun control” on which scores of leftists rushed to hang this abomination.

Lanza was an evil man responsible for perpetrating an evil deed. As long as there are evil people in the world, evil will be with us.

Maybe it is to the “root causes” of why our generation fails to come to terms with this timeless fact that we need to turn our attention.

It’s a very sad thing that has happened in Connecticut. We will never Really know why! My main concern is what the public is doing with this. They are going crazy with gun control, mental health, judging folks and not knowing them. Gun awareness should come about, Mental health awareness also. As far as judging, that is not our right for none of us are perfect!
My heart is full of sadness for All concerned. I am positive that as the days go on things will start to make a lot more sense but as far as Really knowing? I do not believe that we will ever really know because the only one that could answer this question took his life also. Does that mean that he really knew what he was doing? Did he plot to do this or was it a spur of the moment thing? Sad, really sad it All is.

Previous Posts

Forgetting Malcolm XThis year isn’t just the golden anniversary of Selma. It is as well marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X.
Malcolm X has been mythologized. According to the myth, there are, essentially, two Malcolms: the “pre-Mecca” Malcolm and the “post-Mecca” Malcolm X. The former, a

Ben Carson: "Progressive" on Homosexuality?Ben Carson got himself into some trouble a couple of weeks back for remarks concerning homosexuality that he made during an exchange with CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
However, I’m not sure what exactly it is that Carson said that ignited such controversy—or any controversy.
Carson expressed his po

The "Existential Crisis" of the Islamic World's ChristiansIn spite of what Barack Obama would have us believe, he was as much in tune to Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress this week as was anyone and everyone else in the world. But exclusive focus on American/Israeli and Israeli/Islamic relations threatens to blind us to the fierce, unrelenting o

Advertisement

At the Intersection of Faith and Culture

by Jack Kerwick

Regardless of one's views on religion, there is no escaping the fact that Western civilization is unintelligible in the absence of it -- of Christianity specifically. Indeed, even the secular ideologies of our generation derive their identity from the Christianity to which they are opposed. Culture and religion intersect in numerous ways. Through this blog, I explore the intricate relationship between them.